Posts Tagged ‘mixed media’

I was asked to join an art journal link party by Ambika. The journal prompt for this week is “creative freedom”. I sat down to do my page and gave myself free reign to do absolutely anything that I came to my fancy. I decided to do whatever first came to my mind. Like adding whatever color struck me first. I did that until I came out with this:

Excuse the photograph. I didn’t intend to show it to anyone else.

Anyway, I wasn’t exactly pleased with where all this freedom was leading me. So I ended up kind of adding layers and by that process, deconstructing all that bright busy color until I was happy. The finished page looks like this:

You can still see the green peeking out around the girl in the final product. As per usual, I painted her on hot press watercolor paper then pasted her into my journal.

Other then that the bright colors are gone. I added some modeling paste mixed with acrylic paint accents to emphasis the change in color schemes.

Finally, I added a quote from Pablo Picasso that reflected my mood. “Every act of creations is first an act of destruction.”

I’m glad I stuck with this page. At one point I was ready to give up but I worked through it and I’m glad I did. I’m happy with the results.

I used a quote from Buddha that I’ve used before. It just seemed to resonate within me at the time. It still does with so many things up in the air. I have so many projects going on I’m not sure which way is up. I needed a reminder to find the peace within me and from there peace will emanate outwards.

I had a good time adding the white acrylic aura to the portrait. It’s something new I tried. It seemed to be the right thing to do since I had added white to the quote.

After watching a Tim Holtz video, I layered some stencils in the background. He never ceases to inspire me.

I learned a lot doing this art journal spread and I had a great time doing it. I’m also really happy with the way it came out. I’ll be using some of these techniques again in the future for sure!

*tap*tap*tap* Is this thing on? Does this thing work? I guess it does!

It’s been awhile! I fell out of artistic pursuits in favor of book blogging because I got burned out. Then I fell ill and I fell out of book blogging! Needless to say I’m back in with my art and it’s good to be back.

I joined Swap Bot again or rather I’ve decided to start participating in swaps again. One of my first swaps is called Cute Mail Art. Cute? Yeah. But I thought it would give me a chance to get rid of some of my stickers that I picked up forever ago. I still struggled with this. Cute is not my style.

So here we have.. Hello Kitty.

Here’s the front in all its glory.

And the back:

As you can I couldn’t resist adding some texture with bubble wrap. I’m not sure it matches. Plbt. Oh well. I tried!

Next up is an altered file folder mail art. Straight up mixed media is fine! Right up my alley. I’m going to work on that today. Woohoo!

It reads, “Innocence is like polished armor; it adorns and it defends.” Bishop Robert South You can read it better in person. The paint is really reflective in the picture. I’m not happy but I’m happier. I also put some highlights in her hair. I’m not sure that was the right move.

More paintings to come. I’m able to paint more now that baseball season is over!

It was so hard for me to come up with words for this painting. I think it was a complete fail. By the time I got to thinking about what I wanted to verbalize, I was tired and out of sorts. I just wanted to finish the painting. What I should have done was let it sit and let myself think it over. I should have taken more thought over what kind of words to actually put to paper.

I’ll be changing the words on the painting but I wanted to document the process of how important it is to get it right. To take the time and deliberate over each step. The painting won’t be perfect, but it’ll be an improvement over what it was.

I did enjoy the process of this painting. I used spray inks, metallic paint, rubber stamps, patterned papers, book pages, and something new to me! Vintage sewing patterns. Can you see it?

I also did something new to her face. Extra points to those who can spot it.

All in all, an enjoyable painting despite the fiasco with the wording which I will fix sometime today. Hopefully I’ll get off my lazy ass and take some photos of the new and improved painting this week.

I tried to put a lot of different textures in the painting. I hope it doesn’t overpower the whole thing.

I used rub-ons for the belly and his third eye.

Punchinella as a stencil with spray paint. Scrapbook paper for the moon.

A Crafter’s Workshop stencil with more spray paint and a bottle cap dipped in paint used as a stamp.

Punchinella, bottle cap stamp, and scrapbook paper.

I find I’m happiest when I diversify my painting. Right now I have a painting of a whimsy and a stylized portrait going. I’m also contemplating another cat. I like to have my fingers in many pies. It keeps me from getting bored! I also want to try some “Fearless Painting” that I learned from a Lifebook lesson. The teacher is Connie Hozvicka from Dirty Footprints.

As far as Lifebook is concerned, I’m trying to catch up on the lessons. I have a lot of ground to make up. I don’t think all the lessons are for me, but there’s still a lot I want to try and learn. I couldn’t keep up with the lessons as they were going on. Life was just going by too fast and my health wasn’t good. I’ll just have to cram. :-x What I’m going to try and do is download all the videos of the lessons I think I’ll really want to do. I have a TB on my desktop so I think I have enough memory.

This painting is the result of an online class I took from Juliette Crane. The class is called How to Paint an Owl. Details can be found here. I really enjoyed the class. It was comprehensive and fun. A lot of fun. I like Juliette as a teacher and as a person. She let me pay over time. I really appreciated that!

Detail photos:

I used acrylic paints, India ink, chalk pastels, Washi paper, spray paints, and a Pitt pen. I also coated the painting in Beeswax and some kind of finishing spray that I can’t think of off the top of my head. Not in that order. If anyone has any questions about the materials let me know. Better yet, take the class! It’s worth it!

This painting was a lot of fun. I have a couple more that are almost finished. They just need a coat of beeswax. I’m also working on a painting of a cat. I’ve had a cold that won’t go away thanks to weather that can’t make up its mind. It’s impeded my health and painting progress.

The weather has also been chilly the past two or three days. Combined with the bad cold and cuddly cats? It’s just a recipe for staying in bed all day long with the laptop. I can work just as well in bed with my cats and I’m much warmer and much more comfortable! Since I realize this is such a rare thing, I enjoy it all the more. I’ll be back on my feet in no time. Not to mention the weather will warm up!

Hopefully I won’t go so long before posting. For those in the United States, I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving! Otherwise, I hope you’re keeping toasty and enjoying the cozy weather!

From November 26 until December 1st, use the coupon code CYBERMONDAY1 in my Etsy shop and receive 20% off on all original paintings. This is in celebration of the holidays! All of my work is done on hot press watercolor paper. Please stop by for a look!

I’ll post again later with more artwork. It’s either been really cloudy or I’ve been really busy with the holiday season. Things should slow down a little this week for a bit. So I might be able to breathe for a little while before things rev up again. At least I hope so!

Wow! It’s been almost six months since I’ve posted! What have I been doing? I’ve been wrapped up in baseball and cooking. That’s right. Cooking! For those that know me, the only time I would step into the kitchen would be to use the microwave. Cooking is a big step!

It all started when I quit smoking. After that I decided to start eating healthier. So I started cooking! It’s helping a lot. I feel great! My doctor approves. I even started exercising a couple times a week! My doctor! He’s happy!

Now that the baseball season is over I’ve got more time to devote to painting. I even have a WIP to show.

Building a Mystery

I thought I was done, but the more I looked at it the more I realized, Oh no! Not done! The tree on the left isn’t done and there are numerous other issues the painting has.

I was playing around with a painting. Some interesting new textures came out of it that the camera didn’t pick up.

The background has a kind of velvet sheen to in. It’s kind of interesting. I basically played with paints and my fingers. I also played with a water bottle to keep the paints moist. It was fun, although you can’t really see the collage background anymore.

I added some scrapbook embellishments because they sparkle. They blend in a little better in reality. It was a fun painting.

The acrylic adventure is just fun on the whole. I’m enjoying it. I bought a bunch of new acrylic paints to art journal with and to use on canvas. I hope to be able to use them this week. I need to recover from a fever first.